WAKARUSA, Ind. | Workers at the Monaco Coach plant in Wakarusa on Wednesday greeted President Barack Obama and his announcement of more work for their plant with applause, standing ovations and wholehearted approval.
"It will create jobs, help the economy and help more people come back to work and maybe we'll go back on 40-hour weeks," said Robert Stevens, 34, of Mishawaka, as Obama left the shop floor at 12:20 p.m.
Monaco worker Linda Massengill, 35, of Bremen, had just five words when asked if she thought the $2.4 billion in federal grants for electric vehicles would help.
"Oh, boy, I hope so," Massengill said.
Workers all had stories to relate of long periods without work, struggles to keep their homes and the struggle to keep some kind of health insurance. The Monaco Coach recreational vehicle plant was closed last year when the RV industry collapsed.
The 250 workers on the shop floor listening to Obama Wednesday had only been called back to work six weeks ago, when Navistar International bought the company out of bankruptcy.
Outside the sprawling Monaco Coach complex, opinions on the president's initiatives were decidedly more divided.
About 500 demonstrators held posters, waved flags, chanted and sang along the road just south of the plant.
"We are here to voice our opinion that we need to take control of our constitution," Elkhart resident Peter Recchio said. "So in that respect, we're against the health care bill and ... the union card check bill."
Just 50 feet away, St. John resident Blanca Morales said she and her fellow United Steel Workers were there to support the president and tell everyone health reform needs to pass.
"We are just so passionate about what we are doing," Morales said. "There has to be a public (health care) option to include all Americans."
As police looked on, another long line of protesters held up signs opposing abortion and Obama's pro-choice stance. Others a short distance away waved American flags and held up red, white and blue posters reading "Health Care for America Now" and "Jobs with Justice."
Just north of the Monaco Coach plant, Miller's Happy Days Cafe owner Jean Miller said she plans to close in September if things don't get better. She said Obama's plan is too little, too late.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I just don't think anything will help. If they could give back everyone's houses, give back the cars they lost and the pensions they lost -- then it would work."
Unemployment rates as of June:
U.S.: 9.5 percent
Indiana: 10.7 percent
Northwest Indiana: 10.2 percent
Elkhart-Goshen: 16.8 percent
